Goodbye My love
by themostdarkestheart
Summary: What would have been if Aki would have been the one to duel Kiryu and thus kill him by her own hands? Will she be able to endure his loss? This is a "what if"-fanfic to think about some alternate version of the end of episode 55 - Kiryu x Aki


_"Why you have to go? Why can't you stay? Why must destiny be so cruel ??" _

_She couldn't keep these thoughts for herself any longer. No, she didn't want to think that it happened so that it even had to happen this way. Because she had heard that the fight which they have to wage would get dangerous and that it was her destiny. _

Aki knew that she had done many bad things in her life just out of pure despair. And that what she had donewhen she still was a member of Arcadia, this is what she finally wanted absolution for - only because of this she had decided to accept destiny which stood out in form of a sign on her right arm.

She was told that she had to fight. Against her enemies, the Dark Signers.

But she would never have thought that she would fall in love with one of them.

Kiryu had become her one and everything. He understood her pain and her despair and how she felt. But they both knew nevertheless, that nothing can come out of their feelings for each other - but that they cannot be together was not the worst, no, because their destiny was more cruel: One of them had to die in the end.

She felt bad and she bent down herself. Innumerable thoughts, memory shreds, moments, wishes, dreams, destroyed hopes, were in her head. In some of them she saw herself, Divine, she saw herself with Kiryu or with Yusei. She saw how she became one of them, a Dark Signer. In front of her, the bound of her consciousness disappeared, so that she couldn't draw it between herself and the fictitious world in her head.

_"I love you, Aki." _

_"I know that I have feelings for you which I shouldn't have. Because we are enemies and destined to extinguish each other. Forgive that I must kill you here." _

_"I love you, Aki."_

_"Aki. A. . .ki ...." _

_"I. . .i ... Lo ... Lov ...love... y ... you ..." _

DON'T GO!!!! it called out of her. "I don't want you to go !! Why have I let everything behind myself if you die in the end? What meaning was there in all of that, if you are no more now??"

So it echoed in her head just like in her heart.

*******************

She didn't know why it had to end that way. Now he was there, dying, just because she wasn't able to find any other way to save him.

When they had begun this duel it was clear for both of them, that they must run through it without consideration for their mutual feelings.

She hasn't been sure if he now really feels the same for her like she does for him, but it would be of no more importance now, now that his life is past.

Kiryu lay on the ground, waiting for his end, when Aki ran towards him and took him into her arms. The touch of his cold body let her shudder not only because he felt so cold but also because the thought that he would be so cold forever now filled her with frights.

"Izayoi", it came quietly of him when he noticed that she held him in her arms now. He gave her a smile weakly and this smile broke her still more inwardly. She could hold her tears back only with much effort and she had to be strong because she wanted to make him the farewell not even heavier than it already was anyway.

"Aki, why do you cry?", he asked quietly and she noticed that he had noticed it already. "I cannot differently", she sniffled when she suddenly felt his touch at her cheek while he was wiping her tears off gently. "As beautiful as I find your tears in your face, I wouldn't want you to cry now. Don't you think too that there must come a time, in which your tears shall finally dry up? As much as you like pain..." She didn't want him to take his hand away so she took her own one and she put it on his to prevent that the touch of his hand stopped on her cheek. She didn't want this to be his last moment and if it couldn't be prevented, then she still wanted to feel his touches at least one last time.

Kiryu noticed this and held his hand furthermore on her cheek as he felt how Aki hungrily cuddled up to her and her eyes closed briefly to enjoy the cold. How ironic, that he had never been able to be warm once for her.

And when she opened her with tears filled up eyes, his heart nearly stopped beating in view of he expression in them which told him that it was far too early for him to go.

Suddenly he was afraid to die where he had not cared before that he as a Dark Signer was actually in the danger to lose his life in any given moment. However, he knew that Aki also usually wouldn't make much of the death and that she also would not care actually when it would come, now however, at the very last moment, they both had to see how precious the life itself actually was.

Suddenly he wanted to still live on, now that there were so many things which he hadn't made yet because this fight has come in between them. He never had accompanied her on a shopping tour to town, they never had simply just spent time with each other. Not once had they met without any hostile intentions, never before had they showed openly how they feel for one another or even said it.

And he felt that his dream, to find the ultimate fulfillment, the satisfaction of his life, hadn't come true. He now saw how useless it was to try and conquer Satellite, and that he hasn't noticed before, that he would find this satisfaction in the arms of the girl which hold him in her arms right now, while his remaining lifetime was passing pitilessly.

He couldn't hold back this unbelievable emptiness no longer which formed in his heart now. The Irony, that at the end it would be zero and trivial filled his thoughts with a sweet pain of which he had decided now to make the most as long as he still had time for it.

He could feel how her arms drew more tightly around his body, and he then felt how she put her head on his shoulder. Her smell climbed into his nose and woke even more melancholy within him. He also put his arms around her and held her for as long as he finally realized that, if he had to die, he wouldn't want to do it without looking into her beautiful face all the time before.

"Please, Aki, let me look into your face ... ", he said quietly, " I don't want to die without me having looked into your lovely face all the time. You shall be the last thing that I see when I die..." The girl liked to fulfill the wish for him even if she didn't actually want that he noticed her sobs and her tears. She twitched uncontrollably when they looked into each others eyes once again, and her tears now ran down her cheeks without meeting any obstacle.

"Kiryu ... please don't go", Aki besought him, "there is still so much we haven't done. You simply mustn't go yet!"

"I wished I would have a possibility for it but I have none", he said in a soft tone without any bitterness which he suppressed to not make her even sadder. "We knew which consequences all this would have and we haven't had any other choice anyway. You must have no reproaches for youself, Aki ..." "How can I not??", she cried out loud, " I have KILLED you, Kiryu !!! I have finished your life !! How I shall live on, he? How shall I live on with this fault??!!" "No, you musn't think this, Aki! I don't want you to think like this!" "I am a murderess. I have killed again but I have never been sorry just like now..." "YOU ARE NOT!", he said as loud as it was possible for him, and put Aki into some sort of horrified stiffness. His look got softer, as he began to play with her hair strand which hung into her face. "You are not", he repeated, "just think about it, what else could we have done? Nothing at all. Therefore don't make any reproaches to you. Promise me that you won't make any reproaches to yourself." Aki nodded quietly as she took his hand to show that she did. "That I will", she said queitly with tears in her eyes. "Thanks", he quietly said when he closed his eyes and breathed in deeply once again. The girl stiffened at this movement because she was afraid that it was already over with his life and that this was really his last moment now. All the more relieved she was when he opened them again and she could look in his yellow eyes. But what he said now, should turn out to be a farewell for her.

"Aki, I have no longer much time ", he panted, " and I want to say to you that you ...are strong enough ... to ... achieve everything what you want ... and, if you should need help, then you have Yusei. And what concerns me ... Aki ... I will always be by your side ... " "Kiryu...don't go..." "Aki, I...should have known that everything which I wanted, I should have found it in you. It may be to late that I can enjoy more to be with you, but... I see that it is beautiful enough that I can die in your arms...I...", and he looked at her full of love and warmth, "I ... love ... you ... Aki."

He still closed his eyes and hugged her a last time, when Aki noticed that it was really too late now and he just had spoken his last words. He put his head on her shoulder and Aki could feel how he did his last breath.

"No, remain, Kiryu, please. Don't go !!! I also love you, you cannot leave me alone!! ", she shouted but it was senseless because he didn't move any more. He was dead.

She had to keep herself no more and was free to give her tears a free run now.

But she even couldn't hold his motral remains in her arms now, because all of a sudden his body turned to dust and left nothing behind besides emptyness.

Aki stared horrifiedly after the wind which took her last hopes away from her but also the soul of her lover.

She felt infinitely sad but the wind on her cheeks calmed her. She could already virtually feel how not only his body, but how his soul was carried away by the winds.

And although she was still full of tears and they simply didn't want to dry up she had to smile at the thought that Kiryu finally was free now. She knew that he had been lasting his life like her on the search, that he had looked for a meaning and after a solution for his solitude. And this search was over now.

She took a hand and mopped the tears of her face like he had done before. She knew that beautiful roses would pass once, too but that her beauty lasts eternally if one only remembers it.

And she swore that she would never forget him, him and his beauty. And exactly this was what brought her to smile in the end.


End file.
